Method of making a hose coupling



Nov. 25, 1969 A. J. WEATHERHEAD, JR E L 3,479,713

METHOD OF MAKING A HOSE COUPLING Original Filed Oct. 27, 1964 IN VENTORS '44 55?? J n/snn/e'wewqm Jo/m/ M/coz A 7-7-02: Kr

United States Patent 3,479,713 METHOD OF MAKING A HOSE COUPLING Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr., Shaker Heights, and John Nicol, Fairview Park, Ohio, assignors to The Weatherhead Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Original application Oct. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 406,726, now Patent No. 3,345,090, dated Oct. 3, 1967. Divided and this application Aug. 24, 1967, Ser. No. 677,814

Int. Cl. B21d 53/00; 323p 11/00 U.S. Cl. 29-157 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This application discloses a crimp type hose coupling and the method of making the same by extruding the body of the coupling comprising a hexagonal central portion, an adjacent threaded end on one end and an adjacent tubular sleeve on the other end, then welding a flanged nipple inside of said sleeve to form a hose receiving pocket, then inserting the hose into said pocket and crimping the sleeve onto said hose.

This application is a division of application Ser. No. 406,726, filed Oct. 27, 1964, now Patent No. 3,345,090.

This invention relates to hose end fittings or couplings and to the method of making such fittings for connecting the ends of flexible hoses formed of rubber or rubber-like materials to other fluid conduits or assemblies such as by draulic brake assemblies.

It is a general object of our invention to provide a hose end fitting which will make a strong, secure, leak-proof and durable connection with a hose and which end fitting may be manufactured rapidly by cold forming and at a relatively low cost.

Another object of our invention is to provide a hose end which comprises two cold formed parts, namely, a body and a nipple, wherein the body is upset and extruded in a progressive header and the nipple is cold formed in an eyelet or tubular rivet machine and further shaped in a roll threader.

A further object of our invention is to provide a fitting according to the preceding object wherein the body made in the cold header is axially bored and is machined t0 final size and the nipple is thereafter welded within the body.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a hose coupling which will require the minimum amount'of machine work and which, when completed,.will be more efficient in operation than couplings made according to the prior art methods.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a hose end fitting having a tubular nipple with rolled in barbs to grip the inner wall of the hose when the fitting is crimped on the hose.

Further objects and advantages of our invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred form thereof, reference being made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional elevation of the hose end fitting as crimped onto a section of hydraulic hose;

FIG. 2 is a sectional elevation of the hose end fitting prior to crimping the skirt of the fitting to the hose;

FIG. 3 is a sectional elevation of the body of the fitting as formed in the cold header by the extrusion and upsetting of a cylindrical steel blank;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional elevational of the body of the hose end following a first machining operation;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of that part of the body machined to provide a projection welding rib;

FIG. 6 is a sectional elevation of the nipple as it comes from the tubular rivet or eyelet forming machine;

3,479,713 Patented Nov. 25, 1969 FIG. 7 is a sectional elevation of the nipple following a rolling operation during which barbs are formed in a thread roller; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view through the wall of the nipple showing the flow lines in the metal of the nipple wall resulting from the barb rolling operation.

The conventional practice in the manufacture of crimped on hose ends is to machine the complete hose end from a piece of bar stock in an automatic screw machine. Usually hex bar stock is used to provide the hex head portion of the finished fitting. According to the present invention we produce hose ends of the same general type of steel by forming the hose end body, including the sleeve or skirt which is crimped onto the hose, in a cold header or progressive coldformer and thereafter welding a cold formed steel nipple within the sleeve or skirt. Our method reduces the metal scrap losses to a minimum and produces an article having high strength to weight ratio resulting from the work hardening occasioned by thus forming the hose end.

Referring to the drawings, the hose end body, indicated in its entirety as at 5, and having a nipple indicated in its entirety as at 6, is crimped onto the hose 7 in a conventional hose end crimping machine which presses the hose end skirt portion 12 inwardly as at 8 to grip the hose 7 between the outer wall of the nipple 6 and the inner wall of the crimped skirt portion 12. The head portion of the body 5 indicated at 9 is provided with a hex exterior similar to the hex head of a cap screw. The shank portion of the body indicated at 10 corresponds to the shank portion of a cap screw and is exteriorly threaded as at 11 for attachment to other hydraulic components. The skirt portion of the body indicated at 12 is cylindrical and projects a substantial distance from the right-hand end of the hex head 9 of the body. The hose end as ready for crimping has the flange 13 of the nipple 6 welded as at 14 against the end wall of the head 9. The nipple 6 with the skirt portion 12 forms an annular pocket to receive the cut end of the hose 7.

The hose end body as shown in FIG. 3 is produced in a cold former or cold header of the type conventionally used to form cold headed cap screws, or the like. Each article is formed from cylindrical blanks cut from a length of wire stock fed into the cold header. The operations in the cold header include the upsetting of a portion of the blank to form the hex head 9 and the extruded shank 10. During the upsetting and extruding of the headed shank, tools carried by theheader slide of the cold former cause the metal of the blank to extrude around the end of the header slide tool to form the skirt 12. The header slide tools, during the backward extrusion of the metal forming the skirt 12, carry nose portions of the punches to form the recess 15.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the cut blank in the cold header is progressively advanced by transfer means from one die station to the next during the formation of the article illustrated in FIG. 3.

The number of die stations, the particular form of the dies and the particular form of the header slide tools form no essential part of the present invention. Preferably low carbon steel, such as 1010, is employed to form the body. This steel is to be distinguished from sulphur containing free machining stock, such as 1110 or 1112, which has been heretofore used in automatic screw machines to form hose end fittings.

The strength of the cold formed steel article shown in FIG. 3 is characteristic of that resulting from the flow line of cold working a cylindrical blank by upsetting and extruding similarly shaped articles, such as cap screws, having an upset head and extruded shank. It is pointed out that the washer face indicated at 16 is at the underside of the hex head 9 and is formed in the cold header.

The c'old formed body bf the hose end is machined as B scaleof about 76:77. u m g I H a u I k the'feasens' to? -s'upierio'rity' in' performance in our fitting.

showndfiFIGTd "to" revia-e-nre' pilerirdre" I 7 a fid" the projection welding rib 18. This machining operation also produces the chamfer 19 at the open end of the skirt, 12 and the flat wall'portions"'20"and 21;at each side of the projection welding rib. The'cutt'ing' away of-the' 'body metal by machining the right-hand end of the body" re sults in an elohgation bf th'ecylihdrical chamber which receives the cut hose: 'f

A second machining'op'eration' on the cold formed body provides the axial bore 12'which extends from the pilot bore 17 to the conical entrance'22 at" the left-hand end of the body. I

- The nipple forming apart of 'the'hpse en'd is also cold formed from a" cylindrical steel blank in an eyelet or tubular rivet machineto provide' the s'hapeillu'st-rate'd in 'FIG. 6. The circular flange -13 is concentric'with'the tubular wall. 25 .of the :nipple and the right-hand end wall of the eyelet ornipple is punched out'toprovide the-opening 26. I a

The nipple 6, as received from the eyelet'machine o'r tubular rivet machine," is then fed intoaroll threader having dies formed to roll inthe'barbedportionsZLas I I M g I diameter' of'the tubular portion of the nlpple and the shown in FIG. 7. I

As will be understood by those skilled in'the art, reciprocating roll threader dies rotate, the nipple 6 as the roll threader dies move relative to each other. The interior or tubular portion of the nipple is open'and'unsupported during the rolling of the nipple in'the roll threading dies. The pressure of the roll threading dies which form the barbs 27 causes a deformation of the tubular wall, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. Accordingly, substantially uniform wall thickness is maintained andthe strength and grain flow characteristics of thewall of the nipple 6 are maintained.

The barbs 27 are characterized as being re-entrant in nature in that they do not extend appreciably beyond the surface of revolution of the outer-diameter of the cylin drical wall of the nipple 6. Because of the .re-entrant form of the barbs, there is little or no distortion of the hose as it is pushed in the annular pocket formed be tween the nipple 6 and the skirt 12. When, however, the. skirt 12 is crimped, as indicated at 8 in FIG. 1, the material of the hose is forced down into the space between the barbs. A plurality of annular high pressure areas through the hose wall result from the crimping of the skirt 12 against the barbed area of the nipple 6. This construction provides. a hose end which is more eflicient than the hose ends made according to the prior art. One of the reasons for the improved performance of our fitting is due to the barbed nipple made according to our invention. 7

The nipple, after rolling the barbs27 thereon, is placed Within the Skirt 12 and the fihhge 13 0f h pp i truded shank portion, drawing a tubular steel nipple havprojection welded on the annular rib 18. The projection weld rib 18 is fused and flattened during the welding operation so as to provide a strong, leak-proof bond at 1 4 In comparative tests between the fittings madeacc'ording to the present inventionand the prior art fittings machined fromhex bar stock, the devices of the present invention present'a number of advantages from thestand: point of long life and superiority in. performance- In studying the characteristics of thielprior n fillfingshf t tions being at the inner wallopposite the barbs formed at type Which were machined from hex bar stock, it is found that the hex portions of the skirt portionare character ized by having anextremely high Rockwell on the}? scale. This is found to bein' thenature'of'94-95, on the Rockwell B scale. It is understood that thehigh hardliess,

characteristic resultsfrbm the fact that the hex b'arstock M is drawn to its hexagon shape and that -such,.drawing produces s'uch hardness characteristic refer'redto. The brittleness and hardness may, cause the cracking of the a Rockwell hardness on the B, scale of about .'85.8 and that' the skirt portionhas a Rockwellhardness on the skirt under vibration and whip tests. According to the present invention thehexagon; portion of the fitting has This difference may be one of In comparative testing of j'the prior art devices made in automatic screw machines from hex bar stock and devices made according to the present invention, the devices of applicants are shown to'besuperior in pressuretests, expansion and burst tests, pull-out tests, whip tests and cycling tests. ""Although the nipple 6 may be formed on a tubular rive't machine or an eyelet machine, we prefer to make the nipple6 .frornfiat" steel strip stock in an eyelet machine. Round discs are punched from the flat strip stock and the disc blahk is progressively'drawn in a number of die stations. After the last drawing operation is com pleted on the nipple'and the opening'26 is punched out of the rounded'pend,*thegnipple is ready for the thread rolling-machine which forms the barbs 27.

{ffIt-i pdinte'd 'eutthat the aperture 26 at the end of the nipple"hasl a diameterless than the diameter of the tubular bore th'rou ghthe nipple. In this way the rounded end qf tli e nipple "as 'at 30 is utilized to facilitate the assembly of the hose within the fitting. The diameter of the"flang"e"13'ontheiiipple is about three times the outer large flange insures proper alignment of the bore through the nipple with the bore.through the body of the fitting when the two parts are assembled and welded. This also asshresconce'ntricity between the inner wall of the skirt 1'2 and the nipple 6'.

Allof the-reasons for the superior performance of the hose 'end' made as herein described are not as yet known t o applicants. It is'believed that with respect to vibration'and whip tests the cold forming of the body and nipple as herein described result in afitting which is stronger than fittings of'this type which were machined out of bar stock." It isbelieved that the relatively large radiu's in' the flangeof the nipple where it is welded to the body contributes to the long life when subjected to whip and vibration. The cold forming of the body appears to siderable detail a preferred form of our invention, it will be understood that modifications may be made therein within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

That method of making a hose end fiting which comprises cold upsetting and extruding a steel blank to provide a fitting body having an intermediate upset head portionof hex cross section and an extruded shank portion exteriorly threaded, an elongated tubular skirt portion projecting from the hexhead opposite from the exing an enlarged circular flanged end having a diameter approximately the inner diameter of the skirt portion of the body, welding the flanged end of the nipple to the face of-said hex head within said skirt, cutting an axial bore through the head and shank inalignment with the tubular nipple, rolling re-entrant barbs at the exterior of the nipple and at the same time forming annular rounded portio'nsat the inner wall of the nipple, said rounded porthe exterior Wall so as to provide an undulating substantially uniform wall thickness along the barbed area, and. crimpingthe skirt" portion radially inward against the hose to press thermaterial' of the hose'into the spaces between-the barbs at-the exterior of'the nipple.

582: :That method of making a hose end fitting which com prises cold forming a cylindricalsteel blank to provide an upset hexihead portion intermediate the ends of the body, and; extruded shank" portion extending axially away fromone end'face of the-head portion and an axially extruded"tub.ular;skirt portion extending away from the other.end:fac e;of the headportion, machining the interior ,of saidtubularskirt portionv and forminga pilot bore extending through a portion of the head and machining a projection welding rib on said other end face of the head portion surrounding said pilot bore, boring said fitting body axially throughout the length of the extruded shank and opening into said pilot bore, cold forming a steel blank to provide a nipple having a tubular shank portion and a flanged head portion having a diameter about three times the outer diameter of the tubular shank portion, rolling said nipple shank in a thread roller between barbed forming dies to provide a portion of the length of the shank at its exterior with re-entrant annular barbs, and at the same time the barb-forming dies move the Wall of the nipple inwardly in axially spaced areas to provide spaced rounded ribs at the interior of the tubular nipple and thereafter welding said flange portion of the nipple at the said projection welding rib of the body.

3. That method of forming a steel hose end fitting which comprises upsetting and extruding a cylindrical steel blank to provide an intermediate head portion of hexagonal cross-section and an integrally formed extr-uded shank section extending from one end face of said hexagonal head portion, and an integrally formed extruded cylindrical skirt section extending from said hexagonal head portion opposite said extruded shank section, boring said body axially throughout the shank and head of the body, drawing a flat disc of steel stock to form a tubular nipple having a shank, a flanged head and a rounded end on the shank, punching a hole in the rounded end so as to leave a rounded end on the shank, rolling said tubular nipple between barb-forming dies to provide barbs intermediate the ends of the shank portion of the nipple and thereafter welding the flanged head of the nipple against the end face of the hex head of the body to provide an annular pocket between the nipple and the skirt to receive the cut end of the hose and whereby crimping the skirt onto the hose causes the hose material to flow into the space between said rolled barbs.

4. That method of forming a steel hose end fitting which comprises upsetting and extruding a cylindrical steel blank to provide a head portion of hexagonal crosssection intermediate the ends of the fitting and an integrally formed extruded blank section extending from one end face of said head portion, and an integrally formed cylindrical skirt section extending from said head portion opposite said extruded shank, boring said blank axially throughout the shank and head of the body, machining an annular welding rib on the head portion within the skirt, drawing a nipple from flat stock to provide a tubular shank and a flanged head, said flanged head having a diameter about three times the diameter of the tubular shank, rolling said tubular shank to provide barbs intermediate the ends of the shank portion of the nipple and thereafter welding the flanged head of the nipple against the end face of the head of the body within said skirt and at the same time fusing and flattening the welding rib to provide an annular pocket between the nipple and the skirt to receive the cut end of the hose, and thereafter crimping the skirt onto the hose to cause the hose material to flow into the space betwen said rolled barbs.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 454,647 6/1891 Hallas 29-157 724,129 3/1903 Schrader 285-256 1,969,203 8/1934 Cadden et al. 2,150,524 3/1939 Starr 29-157 X 2,176,993 10/1939 Gazey 29-157 2,432,598 12/ 1947 Weatherhead. 2,499,241 2/1950 Courtot 29-508 X 2,584,948 2/ 1952 Weatherhead 285-256 X 2,795,041 6/1957 Klinksiek et al. 29-508 2,798,744 7/1957 Budnick et a1 29-508 X CHARLIE T. MOON, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 ,479 713 November 25 1969 Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. et al It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 3, line ll, "12" should read 12a same column 3, line 70, insert The brittleness and hardness may cause the cracking of the skirt under vibration and whip tests. According to the present invention the hexagon portion of the fitting has a Rockwell hardness on the B Scale of about 85.8 and that the skirt portion has a Rockwell hardness on the B Scale of about 76-77.

Signed and sealed this 16th day of June 1970 (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR. Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

